Verona, Diocese of

VERONA, Diocese of. - City of the Veneto, provincial capital, at the foot of the outlying hills of the Lessini, bathed by the Adige, along whose banks the enchanting "Lungadigi" are laid out and run. The two banks are joined by 10 bridges, blown up by the Germans (Apr. 1945); the most characteristic and historically important are the Scaliger bridge, medieval (second half of the 14th century), rebuilt as it was and where it was (1950), and the "Pietra" bridge, Roman in its two left arches, 16th-century in the others.

Owing to its position, V. had pre-eminent importance as a Roman, medieval and modern center. A first-rate railway junction connects it with the Brenner and with Milan, Venice, Bologna. Economic life is based on agriculture and viticulture (its wines are prized and very well known); the mining, building, chemical, food and hydroelectric industries are gradually developing and intensifying. A substantial network of canals provides irrigation for the areas poor in water in the same province. The area of the city is 199.77 sq. km., the population 186,555 inhabitants.

The diocese, formerly a suffragan of Aquileia and now of Venice, borders on the dioceses of Trent, Brescia, Mantua, Rovigo, Vicenza, Padua; it has an area of 3,098 km. and a population of 645,402 inhabitants; 319 parishes, 26 curacies, 11 rectories, 7 non-residential, 3 sanctuaries, 260 public oratories, 331 semi-public, 68 private; 664 priests, 186 regulars, 3,280 religious women.

I. HISTORY

The origin of V. is uncertain: Celts, Etruscans and Euganeans probably contributed to forming its first nucleus, peoples who on the banks of the Adige established the site of the ferry for transit and trade; it was at first an important Venetic center; in the Roman period (3rd century B.C.) a crossroads of roads, which later took the name of Postumia (from the Lombard plain to Aquileia) and of Clodia (from the Po valley to the Alps, along the Adige). In the subsequent political organization of Venetia, it was first a municipium and then, under Augustus, a colony (Colonia Augusta V.), enrolled in the Pobilia tribe. The Roman-style square city arose within the bend of the Adige, divided into 4 zones by the decumanus maximus, the street corresponding to the Corsi Crispi and Porta romana known as dei Borsari, and by the cardo maximus, the perpendicular street corresponding to the vie Cappello and S. Egidio; at their meeting the Forum was formed, today's Piazza Erbe. The Roman wall circuit was marked out starting from the Adige and via A. Diaz, then continued near the present church of S. Niccolò, turning onto via Leoncino to return to the river; in 265 the emperor Gallienus rebuilt the walls, widening their extent, which also included the Arena. In 312 the emperor Constantine won the victory over Maxentius that opened the way for him to Rome. V., among the cities of the "X Regio augustea", of which Aquileia was the capital, was perhaps the first to receive Christianity and to have an ecclesiastical hierarchy (mid-3rd century) after Aquileia.

The ritmo papiniano and the Velo di Classe, both from the beginning of the 9th century, give the series of bishops of V.: the 4th of the series is Proculus (a. 304); the 6th is Lucillus, present at the Council of Sardica (a. 343-44); the 8th is St. Zeno (362-80), of African origin, a luminous figure of a saint and learned pastor, who carried out his activity in the Ambrosian period, as can be inferred from the content of his preaching, fully in keeping with the needs of the second half of the 4th century; to him is to be attributed the Basilica with three naves, in the area of the Cathedral, with mosaic pavement and early Christian inscriptions, brought to light toward the end of the last century, with appropriate excavations due to Msgr. Vignola (1884) and resumed by chance in 1946, during the repair and restoration of the medieval cloister and of the Capitular Library, gravely damaged by aerial bombardments; the Basilica, in its configurative and mosaic elements, has stylistic relations with the post-Theodorian basilica of Aquileia and with the basilica of Sts. Felix and Fortunatus of Vicenza.

From the fall of the Western Empire to the end of the Carolingian Empire, V. was the theater of complex historical events: Alaric, king of the Visigoths, was defeated by Stilicho (403); in 489 Odoacer was defeated by Theodoric, who made V. a military center by erecting his palace on the hill of S. Pietro; Alboin (a. 569) united it to the Kingdom of the Lombards, of which V. became the seat of a duchy; at the collapse of the Lombards (774), Charlemagne, king of the Franks, defeated Adelchis, son of Desiderius; Pepin, son of Charlemagne, resided for a long time at V., enlarged the church of S. Zeno, on a design by the archdeacon Pacificus, who embodies and guides the cultural and artistic rebirth of the city and county of V. in the Carolingian period; Berengar, king of Italy, won a victory over the emperor Louis III and the Hungarians and left his life there. Otto I (984) detached the March of V. from Italy to give it to the duke of Bavaria; in the 11th century, the bishops of V. are German and side with the Empire against Gregory VII; in 1061 Cadalus of Verona, founder of the monastery of S. Giorgio in Braida, bishop of Parma, was elected antipope, under the name of Honorius II. While feudal struggles rage, V. succeeds in constituting itself as a Commune (1136) with consuls and, shortly afterward (1164), in forming the "Veronese League", which preludes the Lombard League and fights at Legnano (1176). In 1184 V. welcomed the refugee pope Lucius III, who dies there the following year and is buried in the Cathedral (there too his successor was elected in the person of Urban III).

After fierce struggles among feudal lords, Ezzelino III da Romano, in 1226, proclaimed himself podestà of V.; defeated at Cassano d'Adda, at his death (1259) power passed to the Guilds (1262) and to Mastino della Scala, captain of the people and of the city; he is succeeded by Alberto (1277), Bartolomeo (1301) who offers Dante "lo primo suo rifugio e il primo ostello"; with the assumption of Cangrande (1308), the Scaliger lordship is consolidated, subjecting Vicenza, Padua, Treviso; Cangrande II builds Castelvecchio (1351), as a stronghold and refuge. In 1386 the Visconti of Milan supplant the Scaliger power; and after an ephemeral Scaliger restoration, V. passes under Venice (1405); in the 15th century the bishops are generally Venetian. Subsequently V. is involved in the Venetian wars against Milan: it is occupied by the emperor Maximilian (1509) and finally returns to Venice (1516); in the first half of the 16th century the architect Sammicheli erects walls and gates. In 1796 V. undergoes the French invasion and the following year rises up against the French (Pasque veronesi); by the Treaty of Campoformio it passes to Austria, then forms part (1804-14) of the Kingdom of Italy, from 1814 of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia under Austria until 1866; in 1822 the Congress is held there which adopts as its own the political program of the Holy Alliance.

For a long period of time, it becomes an entrenched camp, the pivot of the quadrilateral, with renewed walls and a double outer ring of fortifications. Near V. decisive battles of the Risorgimento take place, of S. Lucia (1848), S. Martino and Solferino (1859), Custoza (1866).

Among the many floods, memorable is that of 1882, which caused grave damage and which determined the erection of the embankments on the Adige.

II. RELIGIOUS LIFE AND INSTITUTIONS

Among the saints born in the diocese are remembered: St. Peter Martyr (v.), St. Angela Merici (v.), the blessed Maddalena Gabriella di Canossa, the venerable Gaspare Bertoni (v.).

Many bishops besides St. Zeno left a great memory: Adelard I (876-915) lived and worked effectively in a period of political agitation between the Carolingians and the German princes; Notkerius (915-28), endowed with distinguished virtues, and "pater Veronensium clericorum"; Ratherius (932-68), a Benedictine, an eminent scholar and man of learning, whose writings make known the conditions of V. in the 10th century and the topography of the city, seen from the point where the citadel now stands (Ratherian iconography); Ognibene (1157-85), who carried out a lofty work of peacemaking in the struggle between the Italian cities and Frederick Barbarossa; after the Peace of Constance (1183, liberty of the Church and of the Communes) it could be said of V.: "est iusti latrix urbs haec et laudis amatrix"; Adelard II (1188-1214), the first cardinal of V., who took part in the Second Crusade; Ermolao Barbaro (1453-71), a benefactor of the ecclesiastical sciences; Gian Matteo Giberti (1524-43), whose work is of first-rate importance in the pre-Tridentine reform: opening up practical criteria of reform for the Council of Trent, of which he is to be considered "quasi dux et magister" (cf. St. Ehses, Conc. Trid., Actorum, Freiburg im Br. 1901, p. 321); Agostino Valier (1565-1608), cardinal, who in 1576 founded the Seminary, which in 1695 took up its definitive seat in the houses of the Somaschi and was adapted and embellished through the work of the bishops G. F. Barbarigo (1697-1714) and Morosini (1772-89); Cardinal Luigi di Canossa (1861-1900) and Cardinal Bartolomeo Bacilieri (1900-23), eminent figures of pastors whose work still has living echoes. The 18th century is the golden age of Veronese ecclesiastical culture with G. Bianchini, the Ballerini, Scipione Maffei, Girolamo da Prato, Vallarsi, Patuzzi, Dionisi, Perazzini, etc.

Charitable and hospital institutions, hospices and senodochia developed extensively in V. and its suburbs on an ancient tradition, from the first spread of Christianity, and continued to intensify through the merit of the Benedictine Order in its branches, and then of the Friars Minor and Preachers and various other male and female Orders, down to the recent foundations of Veronese origin: the Congregation of Priests of the Oratory (18th century), to which Antonio Cesari belonged; the blessed Maddalena di Canossa (Canossians); the venerable Gaspare Bertoni (1816, Stigmatines); d. Mazza; Monsignor Daniele Comboni, to whom the foundation (1867) of the flourishing Institute of the Sons of the Sacred Heart for the Missions in Africa is due (with mother house and generalate at V.); d. A. Provolo (Deaf-Mutes), d. Calabria (the thriving and meritorious Work of the Poor Servants of Providence). The female institutes: Sisters of Mercy, Pious Mothers of Africa, Daughters of St. Mary Immaculate, Daughters of Jesus, Holy Family (Theresians), Little Daughters of St. Joseph, Deaf-Mute Women, Minims Sisters of Mary Sorrowful, Franciscan Tertiaries, Poor Clares.

III. ABBEYS AND MONASTERIES

The most important is certainly the abbey of St. Zeno. Erected on the right bank of the Adige, opposite Verona, probably on the site of a nucleus of primitive Christian buildings, to be connected with the memory of the eighth bishop of Verona, St. Zeno (second half of the 4th century), with Bishop Petronius (5th century), and with the miracle narrated by St. Gregory the Great, whereby the waters of the river in flood did not burst in upon it. Tradition and some elements of late Christian sculpture, reused in the adjoining oratory of St. Benedict (11th century), would confirm the hypothesis of a church and a monastery for virgins, and this also in relation to expressions of St. Ambrose who speaks of a virgin named Indicia, approved by the judgment of St. Zeno.

Documented records of the Abbey go back to the very beginnings of the 9th century, when King Pepin and Bishop Ratold, following a plan by the archdeacon Pacificus, erected here the church over the body of St. Zeno; the Benedictine monks assumed its custody, and the abbey they established grew and prospered rapidly, to the point of making itself independent of the bishop, earning protection, privileges and possessions from Pepin, Louis the Pious, Berengar, Urban III, Frederick II; it soon also acquired political importance and feudal jurisdiction over Bardolino (church of St. Zeno near Lake Garda), Caffi, Ostiglia, Vigasio, Trevenzuolo, Cellose di Illasi, Pastrongo, Castelnuovo dell'Abate (Affi and surroundings), Chievo and Romagnano, over certain lands of Bonferraro, Roncoletto, Pigozzo, Fatoledo, etc. These possessions were distributed to the colonists on advantageous terms, often becoming their property under the high dominion of the monks; others remained the property of the abbey until its suppression. Bishop Ratherius, with the help of Otto I, restored the abbey damaged by the Hungarian invasions; the abbot Alberic (mid-11th century) laid the foundations of the bell tower, which the abbot Gerard (1163-67) raised, slender and elegant, in its Romanesque mass.

During the rule of the Scaligeri, the abbey became almost their domain; and it passed to commendatory abbots in 1425, who entrusted it to German monks until 1630; suppressed by the Venetian Republic (year 1753), its goods were ceded to the hospital of Verona (year 1779), the buildings sold (1810) and then demolished to make building material. Only a very modest part remains with some cells and some medieval structure; the Romanesque cloister survives (12th-13th century) with paired columns of red marble and round arches and with later remodellings and additions (14th century) of pointed arches, with the oratory of St. Benedict and the massive tower with Ghibelline merlature (13th century); on one side of the cloister a small colonnaded enclosure (lavabo) is grafted. The church of the 9th century, after the damage caused by the Hungarian invasion (10th century) and by the earthquake (year 1117), underwent transformations and reworkings: lengthened to the west and renewed in its sides (12th century); between the 12th and 13th centuries the middle part was raised together with the facade, while the tribune above the crypt was adapted (13th century) and the apse assumed Gothic form and structure (1389-96); to this period also belongs the keel-shaped roof.

In 1459 Andrea Mantegna, commissioned by the commendatory abbot Correr, executed, for the high altar, the admirable triptych with the Madonna enthroned between Sts. Peter and Paul (v. vol. VII, pl. 128): the predella with Scenes of the Crucifixion, removed during the French Revolution, is now in the Louvre. In the spacious and evocative crypt, with nine naves, are received the tombs of St. Zeno and of other Veronese bishops. As a whole, the Basilica is the masterpiece of Romanesque architecture in the Veneto; the facade, divided by slender symmetrical pilasters, with an airy prothyrum and stylophorous lions (by Niccolò, 1138) and a rose window of fleeting fortune (Brioloto, end of the 12th century) and blind loggias, is embellished by the bronze portal, which bears biblical scenes and scenes from the life of St. Zeno, in a series of elegant panels: a high expression of local art, with Carolingian influences (9th and 10th centuries) according to some scholars; according to others, however, Ottonian influences of the end of the 11th century prevail and therefore Romanesque. At the sides of the prothyrum are carved on the marble the bas-reliefs of Genesis to be assigned to Niccolò and scenes from the life of Christ to be assigned to Guglielmo (1138): a group of Romanesque sculptures among the most notable of the 12th century. The outer walls of the Basilica are of alternating courses of brick and stone, typically Venetian; the interior with three naves, divided by alternating columns and piers, with the solemn and luminous central nave, with its deep spatial breath, echoes the Roman-Ravennate basilical rhythm. Notable are the Romanesque capitals of the columns with floral and animal decoration, the frescoes on the walls and on the piers; on the presbyterial tribune, the statues of Christ and the Apostles (13th century) and, in the left apsidal chapel, that of St. Zeno laughing (13th century). The sacristy (15th century) also has notable artistic interest, for its coffered ceiling, frieze with flowers and roundels with Benedictine saints. The Basilica is splendidly framed by the Piazza and by the churchyard where a charitable festival is still celebrated, in which the whole city takes part and which is called "venerdì gnocolar", from the gnocco that is distributed on the Friday before Lent.

Of S. Maria in Organo, a Benedictine abbey subject to the patriarch of Aquileia from the 10th century, there is evidence as early as the 6th century; it was enriched by the Lombard duke Lupo (751) and endowed with a hospital; Charlemagne (804) granted free transit to its carts and ships throughout the Empire; it received other privileges and possessions from Berengar (886) and Hugh (928) and from private individuals. It acquired further splendor when the Olivetans (1481) renewed and enlarged the Romanesque church (traces of the 7th-century church survive in the crypt) and enriched it with stupendous works of art, by Giolfino, Caroto, Cavazzolo, Moroni, Savoldo; with the carved and sculpted candelabrum (1499), with the exquisite inlays in the choir and sacristy (1504) by fra' Giovanni da Verona, Olivetan, to whom the architecture of the bell tower is also due. It was a parish in the 14th century, but then the care of souls was taken from it and subsequently reestablished in 1808.

Within the city walls of Verona there were two female monasteries: S. Maria in Solaro, founded in 774 by the two sisters Auteonda and Natalia, subject to S. Maria in Organo and to the patriarch of Aquileia; S. Pietro "ad puellas" (780), later inhabited by Benedictine monks. To the church of SS. Fermo and Rustico was annexed a monastery of Benedictines (end of the 10th century); to the church of S. Trinità one of Vallombrosan monks; other monasteries were annexed to the churches of S. Giorgio in Braida (11th century), of S. Nazaro (9th century) whose Benedictine abbot bore the title of abbot of Badia Calavena, of S. Eufemia (1275) of the Augustinians.

In the territory of the diocese of V. there existed the abbey of S. Maria al Gazzo Veronese, dependent on S. Maria in Organo and, like it, subject to the patriarch of Aquileia; founded in the 8th century and benefited by the Lombard kings Liutprand and Idebrando, it obtained privileges and donations from Louis II, Berengar, and Otto II. The present Romanesque structure of the church, with good frescoes, restored and remodeled, stands on the primitive core, of which various sculptures and fragments of the mosaic pavement remain (second half of the 8th century); from 1526 it has been a parish.

To these should be added: the monastery of Benedictine nuns "ad Flexium" (early 9th century), that of S. Salvatore di Sirmione (8th century), united in the following century with S. Salvatore di Brescia; the hermitage of Benigno and Caro (late 8th century) at Malcesine, on Lake Garda; on the Rocca di Garda the hermitage of the Camaldolese still flourishes. The abbey of S. Maria della Vangadizza veronese, founded in the first half of the 10th century by Hugh, marquis of Tuscany, inhabited by black monks, received privileges and possessions from Berengar II and Adalbert, and later passed to the Camaldolese; from 1454 it has been a parish; another abbey of the same monks flourished at Vangadizza di Badia Polesine (Rovigo).

IV. SANCTUARIES

In the diocese of V. the sanctuary of the Madonna della Corona, at the foot of Monte Baldo, is much frequented; its origin goes back to the end of the 12th century, as the traces of a small church and of frescoes document; it passed (15th century) under the dependence of the Order of the Knights of Malta, and there the image of the Pietà was then venerated, donated by Lodovico di Castelbarco in 1432; the present church, recently renovated and embellished, is of the 17th century. The sanctuary of the Madonna di Campagna, in the parish of S. Maria della Pace, was built by Sanmicheli in 1559, and in 1597 was inhabited by the Camaldolese.

In the immediate surroundings of Peschiera, near the little lake, the sanctuary of the Madonna del Frassino (16th century) rises in a most beautiful position, with an adjoining hospice. The minor Basilica dedicated to St. Teresa of the Child Jesus (Tombetta), in the parish of Tomba, a few km. from V., is also a frequent destination of pilgrimages.

IV. ART

In V. every historical period has left eloquent marks and works of art. Of the Roman periods the most important monuments are: the amphitheater of the Arena (1st century A.D.), which in the Middle Ages and modern times saw judicial duels, tournaments and chivalric festivities; restored, it is now the site of great mass spectacles. On the Via Postumia, half a km. from the Roman gate, called in the Middle Ages Porta di Borsari, stood the arch of the Gavi (1st century A.D.), now rebuilt (1932) next to Castelvecchio; to the left of the Adige, on the slopes of the hill of S. Pietro, is laid out the theater, one of the most remarkable and significant works of Roman civilization in northern Italy (1st century A.D.). In the ancient cloisters, which on the hill of S. Pietro house the Archaeological Museum, the memories of the prehistoric and Roman eras are preserved. In the Maffeiano Museum, the oldest lapidary museum in Europe, founded at the beginning of the 1700s on the initiative of Scipione Maffei, are collected many monuments of sculpture, architectural fragments and Latin and Greek epigraphic documents, coming from the Veneto and from other places, including outside Italy.

From the paleochristian periods come the mosaics in the area of the Cathedral, notable remains of two basilicas of the 4th century, one of which, of larger proportions and at a higher level, is to be assigned to S. Zeno; a stupendous example of a sarcophagus with a city-wall background (mid-4th century), the strigilated sarcophagus (3rd century), reused by the Christians, notable artifacts that are housed in the crypt of S. Giovanni in Valle; in the Museum of Castelvecchio, some gold-backed glasses (4th century), a reliquary ampulla shaped like a tiny sarcophagus in the Ravenna style (6th century), remains of suspension elements of a Veronese "gabata" (lamp) (4th century); to these are to be added mosaic fragments, ornamental sculptures, goldsmith's objects, iconographic rarities in the Capitular Library and in churches and museums (from the 6th to the 11th century); the church of S. Teuteria and Tosca, connected to the paleochristian one, now the Romanesque church of the SS. Apostoli, in its primitive structure with cruciform symmetry, recalls the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna and is referable to the second half of the 5th century; various reworkings have partly changed its original appearance.

The Lombard, Carolingian and Ottonian periods have left notable traces in ornamental sculptures (capitals, plutei, ciborium of S. Giorgio di Valpolicella, bronze doors of S. Zeno) and in sacred buildings of V. and its province (S. Stefano, S. Giorgio di Valpolicella, S. Zeno di Bardolino, S. Benedetto di S. Zeno Maggiore, S. Giovanni in Ponte, S. Nazaro), crypts and primitive structures of other churches, such as S. Giovanni in Foro, S. Maria in Organo, S. Procolo, S. Giovanni in Valle.

Romanesque art, with a group of churches, confers on V. a note of high spiritual and artistic value and of severe nobility. Their gabled facades are typical, with courses of brick and tufa, which the centuries have gilded, divided by pilasters indicating the internal naves, some with the stair towers (church of S. Lorenzo) or the narthex (S. ma Trinità), all with hanging prothyra (S. Giovanni in Valle, S. Maria Antica), decorated with little arches and bands fantastically carved with monsters and floral volutes. The interiors have the suggestion of mystical shadows and of the perspective flight of the pillars and columns that support, on cubic or figured capitals, the bold cross vaults and the tiburium (S. Stefano) or the trussed roofs; they have the mystery of deep crypts, the light of presbyteries raised with ambulatories (S. Stefano) and the matronea (S. Lorenzo). Various houses and towers still betray the Romanesque structure. Other Romanesque churches of the countryside rival in importance and architectural value those of the city and pose interesting problems of derivation and various influences (such as S. Severo di Bardolino, S. Pietro in Valle, etc.).

The monuments of Gothic style assert and fuse constructive elements of Romanesque workmanship and tradition, always alive and operative in V., and often are enriched with Renaissance decorations; in the Cathedral the Gothic evolution utilizes the Romanesque structures (1139-87) of the lower part, of the prothyra (by Niccolò), of the imposing apse, with choir enclosure, a masterpiece of the Sanmicheli, with Renaissance frescoes by Falconetto and canvases by Liberale, Giolfino, Morone, Caroto, Titian (the Assumption). S. Fermo Maggiore, renewed in the 8th century, rebuilt by the Benedictines (11th-12th centuries), transformed by the Friars Minor (second half of the 13th century), with a harmonious fusion of Romanesque and Gothic elements; S. Anastasia, to which was annexed the convent of the Dominicans (13th-14th centuries), now the seat of the Liceo classico, recalls the church of the SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice and the schemes of Italian Gothic, especially in the interior; the Scaliger Tombs (14th century), unique of their kind, the work of master stonecutters from Campione. Other palaces and houses combine elements of Venetian Gothic with Renaissance elements. The great Veronese architect, Michele Sanmicheli (1484-1559), with the monumental and elegant constructions of the Palazzi Pompei, Bevilacqua, Canossa (in the latter, stupendous frescoes by G. B. Tiepolo), of the Pellegrini chapel in S. Bernardino, church and bell tower of S. Giorgio and of the Cathedral, of the fortifications, walls and gates with their solid classical structure, gave V. a characteristic Renaissance imprint, such as Vicenza had in the same period from Palladio and Venice from Sansovino. Sanmicheli's teaching continued in later architecture, apart from a few Baroque exceptions, and thus the classical tradition continued until the erection of the monumental cemetery in the Doric order (1830). By fra' Giocondo is the purest Loggia del Consiglio (last years of the 15th century) in the Piazza dei Signori, where, above the cornice, Alberno da Milano carved the statues of the great Veronese of the Roman age: Catullus, Pliny, Aemilius Macer, Vitruvius, Cornelius Nepos. The characteristic and evocative Piazza Erbe, site of the ancient Forum, is adorned with Roman monuments (statue of Madonna V.), Romanesque (Torre Lamberti), Gothic (casa dei Mercati, Torre del Gardello), Renaissance (Casa Mazzanti and frescoes), Baroque (Palazzo Maffei).

Veronese painting from the 10th century onward has examples in the frescoes of the grotto of S. Nazaro, now in the church of S. Libera on the Colle S. Pietro; in the 13th century in S. Zeno Maggiore, where the most notable cycles of sculpture of the 11th and 12th centuries are likewise admired; in the same Basilica, the triptych by Mantegna, with Madonna and Saints.

In Castelvecchio is housed the Picture Gallery of the Museum, where the Veronese school of painting is largely represented from the 13th to the 18th century. - See plates CXXXII-CXXXIII.

Veronese sculpture from the 8th to the 13th century, Milan 1943; P. Gazzola, The mosaic in the underground of the Capitular Library of V., in Studi stor. veron., 1948; P. L. Zovatto, Christian antiquities of V., Verona 1950. On the abbey of S. Zeno: C. Cipolla, Annales Veron. antiqui, in Boll. Ist. Stor. Ital., 29 (1908), p. 7 ff.; L. Simeoni, The basilica of S. Zeno in V., Verona 1909; A. Boelder, Die Bronzetür von V., Marburg 1931; G. De Francovich, La corrente comasca nella scultura romanica europea, in Rivista R. Ist. d'arch. e st. dell'arte, 5 (1937); G. Trecca, The facade of the basilica of S. Zeno, Verona 1938; A. Da Lisca, The basilica of S. Zenone in V., ibid. 1941. On the abbeys: Cottineau, II, coll. 3342-46.

Paolo Lino Zovatto

V. CAPITULAR LIBRARY

Founded in the 5th century, through the work of the «Schola sacerdotum sanctae Veronensis Ecclesiae», it drew the patrimony of its codices chiefly from the production of its own scriptorium, for the liturgical service in the Cathedral, for the individual study of the members of the Chapter, and of the teachers and pupils of the schools attached to the Cathedral itself. The oldest copyist of the scriptorium who recorded his name and the date is Ursicinus, «lector of the Veronese Church», in the year 517. The greatest impetus was given to the Library in the 9th century by the archdeacon Pacificus (776-844), and by many clerics under his direction.

The Capitular Library of V., called «the queen of ecclesiastical collections», is very famous for the richness and the supreme importance of its manuscripts. The Veronese codices, beginning with the 5th century, represent with a more or less numerous group, but always a notable one, each of the succeeding centuries, especially in the early Middle Ages. Particularly worthy of mention are: 1) the «Gaius» (5th century, palimpsest), a famous unique codex, a distinguished source for the study of Roman law; 2) the «St. Augustine» (De Civitate Dei: 5th century), probably written while the holy Doctor was still alive; 3) and 4) the «St. Hilary» (In Psalmos, and De Trinitate: both 5th century); 5) the Purple Evangeliary (5th century), one of the most important biblical manuscripts of the Vetus latina, known among scholars by the designation Cod. b. Veron., written in silver and gold, on very fine purple parchment; 6) the Didascalia Apostolorum (5th century, palimpsest); 7) the «Sulpicius Severus» (a. 517), written by the already mentioned Ursicinus; 8) the Bilingual Psalterium, Greek-Latin (6th century); 9) the Sacramentarium Leonianum (6th century), a liturgical codex of exceptional importance. Especially numerous are the manuscripts of the 9th century, with several autographs of the archdeacon Pacificus. Other particularly precious autographs: two manuscripts of St. Lawrence Justinian (15th century), two of Girolamo Fracastoro (16th century), all those of Scipione Maffei and of Francesco Bianchini (18th century). Miniatures and bindings of special value: two codices of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary (15th century); the Choir Books illuminated by Turone, a Veronese painter of the 14th century; a lectionary of Holy Scripture (15th century), by a Flemish artist; a «Candido Decembrio» (15th century), by a Lombard illuminator. Almost all the manuscripts earlier than the 10th century, together with some documents of the Archive, were restored at the Vatican Library, through the generosity and munificence of Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV and Pius XI. Excellent too, in quality and quantity, is the printed bibliographic patrimony, which includes a good number of precious incunabula, with some «unicum» and not a few very rare items. Also worthy of note is the sumptuousness and artistic beauty of the seat, rebuilt (following the bombing of 4 Jan. 1945, which destroyed it entirely) according to the most careful provisions for the safest custody, the best conservation and the most worthy presentation of the bibliographic, documentary, archaeological and artistic material. Notable is the new chapel, entirely painted in fresco by Elena Gazzola Schiavi, with episodes from the life of the archdeacon Pacificus.

VI. CAPITULAR ARCHIVE

The archive of the canons is also kept in the same Library, consisting of approximately 11,000 parchment documents and countless paper ones; the former beginning with 7 parchments from the 8th century, the oldest of which is from 710; the latter with notarial protocols from the beginning of the 14th century. The parchment documents are kept in folders, arranged in chronological order.

Giuseppe Turrini